Review Revue: Foetus – Thaw

You know, it’s pretty cool that I get to hang out at an independent radio station, going through their records (as in LPs) from the past 20-odd years. When I was a much younger person, I often listened to WZBC in Boston, which was a wonderful resource for strange new music (their motto was “No Commercial Potential,” and they took it seriously). One artist I discovered by listening to ZBC was Foetus (aka Jim Thirlwell, Clint Ruin, Foetus Under Glass, You’ve Got Foetus On Your Breath, Foetus Interruptus, Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel, etc.), specifically the Scraping Foetus off the Wheel album Nail. I don’t know what it was about this dark, strange music that latched onto the young me, but I loved it. I heard a couple songs on ZBC and went out and bought the record, which I still have to this day. (One thing about writing this blog: it often has me thinking “Man, I gotta listen to that!”)

I almost posted the comments from Nail up here — which was interesting, and personally relevant, of course — but then I pulled out Thaw (Foetus Interruptus), which has it all: nerdy commentary, fanboy gushing, and interpersonal catfighting. Yet again, these old albums prove themselves to be the precursor to Internet discussion boards. Sit back and watch the fur fly:

“The best thing Thirlwell has ever recorded; thus more visceral, extreme + refined than anything from the past. A whole new aural hell for you to explore. For those into segueing, try 2.4 w/some Rai music.”

“I agree, I just can’t get enough [illegible].”

“Will KCMU be fined for playing songs that have the word ‘fuck’ in a non-English language? I think ‘chingada’ (2.4) means ‘fuck’ in Spanish.” [For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure we can play as many non-English swears as we want.]

“Foetus reveals the stupidity of racism, sexism and homophobia by blatantly chanting the inward thoughts of racists, sexists and homophobes. This is gonna piss off a lot of folks. You think he believes the face value of his lyrics? Check out 2-5. This isn’t as relentlessly symphonic as earlier material. A bit more subtle at times with less lyrical ripoffs than in the past.”

“If the lyrics bug ya, play the few instrumentals.”

“What is the difference between thinking ‘I hate blacks’ and singing it by Foetus?”

“The only people who need to have racist, sexist, homophobic attitudes “REVEALED” to them are the people who, by virtue of their economic, gender, or sexual choice never had to deal w/these issues anyway. Like you and Foetus. P.S. Are your parents still supporting you?”

“Why? Can you loan me $100?”

“No, I’ve been supporting myself for the last 10 years.” — “Oooooh!!” — ” And yourself? And how much of my background do you know about?” — “Hmmm!” — “Or else you may know that I have had to deal with these issues! Sign your name and let’s have a chat, but then again I have no patience with pre-attitudized pseudo liberals. So piss off.”

“Is witto sneed getting angwee? Funny how much stupid shit people think they need to write to each other, can’t we just write our mothers or cry or something?”

“Kills!!!”

“Mr. Creedo- Please see other side! Your pal…”

“It’s Creed to you, and if you don’t think people will know about you in the future that’s your problem.”

“Well, my name is W____ C____ W_____ and I don’t consider any album’s comments as ‘personal’ enough to warrant attacks on individuals because no one is going to know who the hell D____ C______ or W______ W_____ is when they stumble across this album in 1999 [try 2008 — and beyond!!!] anyway. I feel compelled to respond to comments, however, as the ideas/musical insight/, etc. will service future KCMU DJs much longer than whether or not they know the author of those comments. I don’t need to know whether your financial situation does, in fact, mirror the presumptions you make in your comment to make a valid criticism of the comment expressed originally.”